#johncorwin

63 Gone Home by John Corwin dir Anita Deely for Wax Lips Theatre Company at Strawdog Theatre. Gone Home is the story of Jack, a writer who left home in a cloud of animosity when he was 18 and never returned home, until now, 12 years later. As the play begins, he’s sitting on a couch with his wife, who comes in and out, and the play is mainly one on one conversation between Jack, his father who was always on the road, his mother who was a dominating presence in his life and his sister, who has a hard time dealing with her emotions. The fact that his parents look his age and dress from a bygone time is the first indication of something wrong. I loved this show. I rarely get to a) play a good person or 2) play a normal person. I rarely get to do small or intimate. And that’s what this show was, people having conversations steps away from the audience. I never moved from the couch (for script reasons that become obvious as the play goes along.) One night we had a talker in the audience (naturally related to someone who worked on the show) who would say things like “Oh she doesn’t like that!” when Suzi, the sister got upset. But the best was, one of the running bits in the show, is when my father shows up, he either eats food or eats my food. When Kurt came out with a sandwich, from out of the audience, clear as a bell you just heard “Oh he’s got that sandwich! He’s not gonna give him ANY of that sandwich!” #retrospective #1999 #waxlipstheatrecompany #johncorwin #anitadeely #strawdogtheatre (at Chicago-n Broadway) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6QU8kJpQtW/?igshid=34rw9ckr7kxc

60 What Does That Mean? By John Corwin dir John Corwin, Wax Lips Theatre at Angel Island. So the previous iteration of WDTM was incorporated into a larger story, interweaving theatre and relationships. The first part was the scene I directed for Abbie Hoffman, except now I was in it. The second part was a scene about 4 people putting on a play that surfacely looked A LOT like Navy Pier, except if it was written by a misogynist asshole, and said asshole gets called out on his shit. It also explores a writer using his own life for play material. And the third scene was about the asshole from the first and the asshole from the second getting a taste of their own medicine. THIS IS A GROSS OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF THE BRILLIANCE OF THIS SCRIPT. But Instagram only gives me so many words. I thought this was a well done, interesting, funny but also moving show, unlike anything else you would see in a storefront at the time. Unfortunately - even though the Trib listed Navy Pier as one of the best shows of the year, they didn’t come to review this one. And the Sun-Times came but didn’t publish the review until the Friday of closing weekend. And it was a rave. And we were six years from TimeOut and quite frankly the Reader didn’t get it. So it wasn’t well attended. And there were some personal tragedies and technical difficulties that made things challenging. But I really loved this play and doing it with the folks that I did. Kat McDonnell, in character, having to struggle to get out the phrase “Morning Gravy” was one of the most difficult moments I’ve had not breaking on stage. Mouth mouth, y’all. #retrospective #1999 #whatdoesthatmean #waxlipstheatrecompany #johncorwin #angelisland #mouthmouth #morninggravy (at Angel Island Theater) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6JCYi-pckC/?igshid=19dgngxfpodnz

59 Navy Pier by John Corwin dir John Corwin for Wax Lips Theatre Company, benefit performance at Victory Garden Theatre. As stated previously, John’s script was a huge success for Wax Lips and garnered some attention and the company had the opportunity to co-produce with Soho at their theatre in London, where John was also going to do a residency for a year. And since the show involved 4 people sitting and talking to the audience, we could perform it just about anywhere, so this time we did. It was on the set of the current show at VG which had a giant (fake sadly) hot tub on stage. Martin McLendon, were you in that show? I played Martin for this one off, and we had a nice house and it sold well. In my memory. Gosh I hope that is true. I was also temping at the time. I wanted to get away from the backbreaking potentially injurious work of scenic construction, so instead I was temping at the physical services plant of a major law firm downtown doing the backbreaking potentially injurious work of setting up and breaking down 100lb conference tables and unloading pallets of cardboard boxes which had been sitting in a Pickens-Kane warehouse for years. I almost got hired there, except the week we were doing this performance I ended up working from 9 - 9 one day because the regular guy who was my partner called in sick and I worked myself sick, so I took two days off to recover for the show and they ended my temp contract. My next two week temp job would last 13 years. The other thing that stands out in my memory of that week was Gene Siskel passed away. #retrospective #1999 #navypier #waxlipstheatrecompany #johncorwin #martin #benefitperformance #victorygardenstheatre #mayerbrownplatt #genesiskel (at Greenhouse Theater Center) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6GTx51pLOv/?igshid=bua9q5hgf3ui

58 What Does That Mean? By John Corwin dir by ME! Wax Lips Theatre Company at Abbie Hoffman Died For Our Sins Festival X. My first directing gig! Eventually the piece would become the first part of longer play using the same title. The piece was three people sitting in the (mostly) dark talking about a play one of them had seen earlier in the evening about three people sitting in the dark. I was unemployed at the time, by choice. I just couldn’t take another year of public transportation out to the Steppenwolf scene shop on Division and Kolmar from Lincoln Square anymore. Plus I topped out at $9 an hour with no paid time off and no insurance. So I was living off my accident settlement for a couple of weeks until I would start temping. And since we didn’t want to spend a lot of money we rehearsed in my apartment, which was fine since there was no movement and it was just three people. The building was owned by Celine and her husband Adolph. Celine lived in the downstairs apartment, Adolph lived with his girlfriend somewhere else, they had been separated for years, but never bothered to get a divorce. Anyhoodle one day I’m coming home and Celine stops me on the front porch and starts yelling “I know what you do! I know! I know what you do! How many? How many people you have up there?” Eventually I figured out that the neighbors, were telling her strangers we coming in and out of our apartment at all hours of the day and night. Which was not true, the actors would come at 7 and leave at 10, but she somehow convinced herself we had 9 people living upstairs and threatened to throw us all out, since she also refused to give us a lease. Primarily so she could threaten to kick us out when we displeased her. During one performance that weekend, it was a sunny day when I left, but it rained while all of us were out and we left a window open and she told us all we had to start looking for somewhere else to live. It eventually got sorted out but that’s what living there was like. Sometimes you really pay for that $278 a month. #retrospective #1998 #whatdoesthatmean #johncorwin #directing #abbiehoffmandiedforoursins #crazyfrenchlandlady #lincolnsquare (at Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Dxw57pALU/?igshid=1r9nktwqncdih

56 Navy Pier by John Corwin dir Joshua Neds-Fox for Wax Lips Theatre Company performed at Strawdog Theatre Company. Wax Lips was the theatre company I belonged to in the 90s, where I was also literary manager. Kind of a fun job, I would look for plays for us to do, and then John would write something awesome and we would just do that. Navy Pier being no exception. I remember that feeling or reading it and knowing that someone I knew actually created something great. Navy Pier tells the story of four people, Martin, Kurt, Iris & Liv, and the complicated way their lives intertwine after a reprehensible act. I was the Assistant Director and Understudy for this one, but I did go on as Kurt in the initial run. The show garnered great reviews, and one weekend a producer was in town and couldn’t get tickets for Rent, and Navy Pier was the other highest rated show in the newspaper. So that’s what he saw and because of that, the show would go on to have further life at the Soho Theatre Company in London. It also extended from its initial run at Strawdog to a remount at Live Bait in February of 1998. Hey if any young folks are looking for a four-hander that only requires good acting and four stools, seek this play out. It would be amazing to see this play done in Chicago again. It’s been over 20 years. I saw the play every week of both runs. I would love to see it again. “What the…?” Set by John C. Stark. Poster by Sean Reynolds. #retrospective #1997 #navypier #johncorwin #brendanhunt #waxlipstheatre #strawdogtheatre #livebaittheatre #sohotheatrecompany #airhockey #issacgreetsthenewday #slackjawedtourists (at Chicago-n Broadway) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5-SU4LpsuV/?igshid=mc4mamqdsp1w

54 Slim Just Left Town written by John Corwin dir Brendan Hunt with Wax Lips Theatre Company at Cafe Voltaire. So a horrific accident which I survived provided enough money to move back into the city and spend $500 on a used car. Side note: I’ve paid a combined total of $550 for three vehicles in my life, which have lasted for a combined total of seven months. Shortly after moving back into town, I took some load in/load out work at Steppenwolf which was supposed to last two weeks and lasted instead two years. And finally I auditioned and got cast in a show, so I was acting again! For the first time in two years, I had a part that I got to rehearse and had more than three lines. SJLT was a script about a group of 20-somethings and the various travails of their relationships. I played Brian, a young man who fell in love with a woman he met at a Taco Bell. If the title is not a give away, nothing really goes well for anybody. I was fortunate enough to be working with a lot of friends from college and some great new folks. It’s hard to explain the basement of the Voltaire to the yung’uns these days, but it was such a large part of the non-equity scene in the 90s. This tiny little room in a basement, with no place to store anything, no dressing rooms to speak of, would constantly flood, and 8 ft ceilings with barely any ability to light anything. But so much theatre was done there. Nothing like being a foot away from a dude a in the front row housing a two foot plate of nachos. Photos from the closing night party at mine and Doug Simpson’s place. The best darn apartment I ever had. #retrospective #1996 #slimjustlefttown #waxlipstheatrecompany #johncorwin #brendanhunt #cafevoltaire #tacobell (at N. Clark Street, Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/B55KKdXJ0fr/?igshid=1riw1tzk5hd0c